


AoU Black Hill version

by littlesolo



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-02
Updated: 2015-05-05
Packaged: 2018-03-26 17:19:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 2,998
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3858631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littlesolo/pseuds/littlesolo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>SPOILERS ABOUND!! READ ONLY AFTER THE MOVIE!!</p><p>The events of Age of Ultron with Maria and Natasha in a relationship.  Natasha sees something in Bruce, that they have things in common and that while he has Tony who he shares science with, she could be the friend who understands the monster.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Natasha and the others had fought like hell as always in the snow.  The moment Clint was hit though, she was at his side.  Let the others think what they would.  She knew he had people to return to and she would see that he did.  Through the comms, she hears Steve talk about 'enhanced'.  Clint says he was fast, and looking around Natasha can see as much.  There isn't a footprint anywhere ten feet from them.  

Thor promises to get Clint to the jet and Natasha is sent to get Bruce.  Coincidently, the manner of running her finger across Banner's palm to get him to change back was found out from Maria.  

As Phil's team was gaining more and more notice, Maria was a mess since she was eing made to answer for it before Congress.  Natasha had found Maria beating the hell out of the punching bag in Stark's gym.  Natasha had walked over and held the bag for her and let her work out her frustration.  Then she had pulled Maria back before she got to the point where she couldn't stand.  Natasha had removed her gloves and then carefully unwrapped her hands.  She drew her finger gently across Maria's palm as Maria calmed her breathing and finally let her sweaty forehead and soaked hair rest on Natasha's shoulder as she relaxed.  

It seemed to have the same effect on Banner and had become the go to technique they used after battle if he had to turn into the green guy.  Whatever worked.  

* * *

Back at the tower, Natasha makes sure Clint is going to be alright and then goes and checks in with Maria.  She used to reassure Maria that she was okay.  Maria would grin and say she expected nothing less but was wondering how she was.  It took Natasha a while to figure out the difference, but Maria was like that.  

 


	2. The Party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Party and After Party

At the party Natasha says hi to Rhodey and Sam and spends time with Clint and Steve, but she tries to spend time with Bruce too.  

Bruce intrigues her.  She knows he shares a love of science with Tony, but when it comes to the rest of them, he tends to close himself off.  She falls into old habits and flirts with him a bit, because it's easy and because she doesn't really know where to start a conversation with him.  

Later, over competing to see who can lift Thor's hammer, Bruce motions for her to try.  It would seem her good intentions had the desired effect even if they hadn't been the words she had wanted to use.  

The appearance of what Bruce called "Ultron" though put a damper on the mood.  Natasha does note Maria pulling a gun from a garter holster.  A garter holster she was unaware of.  When did she get _that_?  Once again, those thoughts are put on pause when more bots appear.  Natasha dives over the bar and Bruce practically lands on top of her.  She'd laugh at his near blush and apology but she's more concerned about the light pink on his cheeks turning to green.  Pulling a gun from under the bar (right where she'd placed it for just such an occasion) she fires, providing Maria with back up and herself and Bruce with cover as she gets him to the balcony just in case.  

Afterwards, she does her best to discreetly look over Maria for signs of injury and misses the fact that Maria is doing the same to her.  Natasha smirks.  The leather jacket she'd gotten Maria for her birthday not only looks great on her, but holds up great against wear and tear like glass and debris.  Which is exactly why she'd bought it.  


	3. An Epic Mind Fuck and Barton Farm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What Natasha saw and what happened at the farm

Clint gets Natasha back to the jet after the girl had messed with her head.  He'd had to carry her, she couldn't stop shaking.  He immediately sets her up with a video link with Maria and tucks her into a private corner.  Given the size of the jet, it's not easy, but the others are too caught up in their own nightmares to pay her any mind.  

Maria's face comes onto the screen and she takes one look at Natasha's face and asks her to give her a moment to secure her office.  Natasha is wearing noise canceling headphones and a mic, so everyone is shut out anyway, but just the sound of Maria's voice makes it easier for her to breathe.  She's set the tablet propped up on the floor and has her arms wrapped around her knees because it's the only way to hide the fact that she's still shaking.  Maria asks her what happened.  

"She showed me my fears"

"What can I do to help?"

"Tell me about your crap day"

And Maria does.  She knows exactly what Natasha means.  She tells her everything from the broken coffee machine that she and Pepper only discover after they drank some of the rancid liquid, to the pen that decided to leak all over her hand during a meeting.  Natasha points out that she tends to squeeze them when she gets aggravated and they crack, Maria gives her a look but it makes Natasha feel a bit better anyway.  

* * *

When they arrive at Barton's farm, Clint is still supporting her because although she is feeling a bit better, the images are still too fresh in her mind.  She says hi to Laura and Clint's kids.  She remembers the last time she was here.  She was introducing Maria to Laura and Laura had just told them she was pregnant.  

Later, she's waiting for Bruce to get out of the shower and her thoughts drift back to what she had seen.  Yes, she had seen her past, what they had turned her into, the many faces of her ledger passing before her eyes like a twisted flip book.  At the end of the flip book the scene had been briefly distorted and Natasha had thought the dream had come to an end.  But then her eyes had focused on body before her.  Maria.  Her eyes were empty and she'd been shot in the forehead and heart.  Natasha's hand had still been extended and that's when she sees the gun in her hand.  She doesn't need to calculate trajectories to know that she was the one who fired the shots.  The gun is heavy in her hand and head is blank.  There's a voice.  A voice that sounds like one of her instructors or one of the doctors?  A matronly voice that says in her mind: _What did you think would happen?  You knew it would come to this.  It's better this way._  

The bathroom door opens and it shakes her from her thoughts and she is grateful.  

Bruce talks of people seeing the _true_ Hulk for the first time and Natasha bites back a bitter laugh.  No one has seen the true Black Widow but Clint, Maria, and Fury.  It's why she trusts them so.  They have seen her and stayed and it means the world to her.  The Hulk?  Tony saw to it that all he caused was destruction.  Bruce had even anticipated the scenario and created safe guards.  The Black Widow?  When at full force, and not armed with taser batons, not aiming to bring back people to question, leaves nothing but blood.  Tony had a fund in place for the type of damage that the Hulk caused.  The Black Widow cause mass funerals.  Didn't he see that when it came to monsters, she understood?  Steve didn't, obviously and neither did Thor.  Clint could be a big help, he could, he had been for her, but she truly understood.  

Bruce goes on to talk about having nothing to offer the world, not even children like Clint can and it's out before Natasha can help it.  

Neither can she.  

Sex was a tool to a Black Widow.  Love is for children and mercy is for the weak.  Bruce looks at her as if she is broken, as if she has had a piece stolen from her that she can never get back.  She'd told this all to Maria a little over a week after they'd visited Clint, Laura, and the kids.  Maria had gotten angry at her.  " _It doesn't mean you can't be a mother!  I saw you with Clint's kids!  You'd be a great parent!  You're not broken!  That little girl loves you and makes you drawings and you put them on your fridge and the boy asks you questions and you help him too!  They love their Aunt Nat!  You don't scare them!  You can still adopt Nat, you can still be a Mom._ "  

Bruce wants to run.  She remembers Maria's words but the images of her younger self and of a lifeless Maria are too mixed in her mind for her to make sense of and running sounds good, if only to keep the dream from becoming reality.  

It's later, when Nick is talking about standing and fighting, that Natasha reminded that she came to SHIELD because she was tired of running.  

She's going to be an Avenger.  She's ready to fight.  

She also catches Nick asking to "borrow" Miss Hill.  Looks like Maria's going to fight too.  

 


	4. Cradle and Capture

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Natasha's capture and meeting with Ultron. Also, a bit of Maria's point of view.

Natasha had done her part and gotten the cradle to Clint.  She knew that Stark and Bruce would figure a way in it.  She just had to hold on.  

Ultron is a terrifying presence.  It's not just his metal form or that he's read their files.  It's that she realizes that even in her head she refers to Ultron as "he".  His grasp of language is so common and fluent that she almost forgets he's a robot.  He doesn't sound proper like JARVIS.  In fact he sounds a little flippant like Tony but there's a shiver to it, a callousness that Tony's voice never holds even when he's being cold or rude.  When another version of Ultron rips through the robot in front of her, she scrambles backwards.  Right into a cell.  She wants to kick herself for not seeing that coming.  She'd try to escape but she's no match for the robots here that clearly outnumber her.  

Looking around, she sees the outdated communication gear that has been shoved in the cell, out of the way.  She's already working on hooking it up, but she can hear Maria's voice in her head telling her one of the early lessons that Aunt Peggy taught her:  _Anything can be used as a weapon_.  Once it's ready, she sends out a signal.  

* * *

Fury knows all about Maria's relationship with Natasha.  He's happy for them.  But right now, his Second in Command is not doing well.  She's doing her job optimally as always but he worries about both of his girls.  

Maria is worried.  Which is rare.  When it comes to Natasha, Maria knows better than anyone that she can handle herself, having been the one to track her down.  Then there's everything Natasha has told her about herself.  Everything down to the grisly details that she is ashamed to admit.  Maria knows her skills and abilities having witnessed many of them and even been taught a few.  But Ultron is not a person.  There is no conning him, no reasoning, no luring.  This is no job for a spy.  It's not that Natasha can't hold her own in most situations, it just that even the shoddy version made of scrap parts at Tony's party could crush a human skull with it's hand and given the footage they now had of Steve's fight with Ultron...

Maria was worried.  

 


	5. The Fight and Rescue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Starts with Maria's point of view

"Glad you like the view, Romanoff" says Nick.  It's his best attempt to make light of the situation since he knows Maria heard the comment too and is going to kill Natasha for it later.  

Maria knows that Banner got Nat out, but it was Nat who decided to stay and fight.  Maria knows that Natasha gets scared.  The thing is, Natasha was raised to think it was weakness and something to fight through or run from and before SHIELD she had decided to run.  Maria made a point to remind her that being scared meant you had common sense.  With the things that they faced, anyone would be a fool not to be scared.  Fury had used the words "stupid mother fucker" when he'd explained it to her the first time.  But she wasn't alone, she had Clint and the other Avengers.  She had the twins who when they saw the big picture, didn't hesitate to join them in their fight.  

* * *

 

Natasha winces when she hears Fury's voice because where there's Fury, there's Maria.  Pietro asks if this is SHIELD and Steve says it's what SHIELD is supposed to be.  The look on Pietro's face makes her think.  If she had not wound up in Red Room, her life might not have been so different from the twins.  They fight for their home and it warms something within her.  The fight continues and she hears Maria giving orders and updating them.  

Natasha has to remind herself to keep moving when she hears Maria yell incoming and hears gunfire.  She continues to fight and rip wires free from the robots but lets out a breath when she hears Maria call out "Clear."  

When Ultron shoots from the jet, the Hulk takes the gunfire to his back, protecting her.  Natasha sees Pietro save Clint and get hit.  She also sees the burst of power that his sister gives off having seen it as well and it breaks her heart.  

* * *

Natasha gets bandaged up and makes sure that Maria gets tended to as well.  Then she goes and tries to contact Bruce.  She knows what it is to be alone, but it doesn't have to be that way.  She can be his friend in addition to Tony.  Neither of them see a monster.  Tony still saw him during the fight.  She understands.  

He hung up on her.  

She goes and finds Maria again and before Maria can say anything, and even though Fury is watching, wraps her in a tight hug.  Maria says nothing but hugs her back.  Leaning back, Natasha cups Maria's cheek and after a moment, kisses her.  

Maria had never seen her as a monster.  

 


	6. New Avengers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Natasha tries again to make a friend

Natasha watches with a fond smile as Maria gets everything setup in the new Avengers facility.  Sensing a presence behind her she turns to see Nick.  

"Did you know?  When you put us all together?  Did you know?"  

"I knew I needed a team.  Whatever else... would just happen.  I'm happy for you both though."  

"She could use him you know, Wanda.  Her mental abilities are beyond my capability to train.  Her grief still overwhelms her and his zen master methods could help her" comments Natasha.  Nick tells her what he knows about Banner's whereabouts but she doesn't expect him back anytime soon.  

She had tried.  Tried to make a friend.  Maria had told her not to focus not on where it went wrong, because it wasn't on her end.  All she could do was try again, and once again it took Natasha a while to figure out what Maria meant.  

She tried again with Wanda Maximoff.  

It wasn't that she was once an enemy now turned ally.  Clint vouched for her and that was good enough for Natasha anyway.  According to him, she'd saved his life as well that day.  But what Natasha saw was someone that for the first time in her life, was truly alone.  She'd had her brother her whole life, and then when their parents were killed when they were ten, he'd become all she'd had.  Now she was alone.  Natasha was grateful to Pietro for saving Clint since he was like her brother and she couldn't imagine not having him there.  She had seen Wanda turn as if to tell someone behind her something, only to find someone else there like Sam or Steve.  

But it wasn't just a 'thank you'.  Wanda was funny.  Sincere, but she had a bit of her brother's quick wit and could keep up with Natasha when she and Maria were teasing Tony or Steve.  Natasha had choked on her drink when Wanda called Steve "Captain Flashback" while Maria tried to hide her laugher by leaning behind her chair.  

Natasha had made a friend.  Not a friend that happened to be a monster, but a person.  That Banner couldn't understand the difference was sad, but not her problem.  


	7. An Age of Miracles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There is always something going on in a lab...

There hadn't been a funeral for Pietro.  Wanda hadn't known what to expect.  It wasn't exactly like she'd had funeral for her parents.  There hadn't been anything left.  SHIELD had brought Pietro's body back, but Wanda didn't want to see him, remember him that way.  

 _I'm 12 minutes older than you, you know_.  She wants to remember him smirking at her before he races off to save people.  And not the sound of the gunfire from the jet. 

Maria comes to find her while she's training with Natasha.  Wanda is following her but stopped listening after Maria says something about Pietro.  It's then that it registers that this is a medical wing of Stark labs.  She is grateful that Natasha decided to follow as well and for Maria's hand on her shoulder when she hears the voices.  

"No, you have to stay put if you expect to heal!" comes Clint's voice from a few feet away.  Wanda can see him standing at the end of a bed.  

"But I'm bored!" comes Pietro's voice and Wanda's at his side in a second with her arms around him.  Followed by a hit to his shoulder.  "Easy!  I was shot there you know."  She'd hit him again but is too busy wiping the tears from her eyes to bother.  

"Take three days, Wanda" says Natasha.  

"When you're released from medical, report to Barton, Pietro" orders Maria as they head out together.  

"Wait, what?" echo Clint and Pietro behind them.  


End file.
